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The Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodhgaya by night. It was built to mark the site where the Bodhisatta attained Enlightenment and became a Buddha. Bodhgaya nowadays hosts monasteries from different Buddhist countries and is a vibrant working Buddhist center where devotees, monks and meditators from all traditions come to visit, worship, chant and meditate. It is part of the itinerary of the Along the Path pilgrimage and many pilgrims describe the atmosphere as supportive for meditation.

A Study of the Pāramīs - 20% OFF

Audio CD Series of Lectures by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi

The word pāramīs literally means perfections, virtues. The commentaries define the Pāramīs as “noble qualities beginning with giving, accompanied by compassion and skillful means, and untainted by craving, conceit, and wrong views.”

Originally, the idea of the Pāramīs was introduced to explain the practices that a bodhisatta undertakes while striving for Buddhahood. As time went by, the pāramīs were given an extended interpretation so that they became not exclusively that which a Bodhisatta aiming for Buddhahood has to fulfill, but they became the qualities that any aspirant for enlightenment — in any mode — has to fulfill.

Generally, we speak about people as being engaged in the development of the Pāramīs that correspond to their spiritual aspiration.

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi explains the ten Pāramīs in a general way, according to how they are explained within the Theravada commentaries in reference to the practice of a Bodhisatta aiming at Buddhahood. His series of lectures are available on CD.

The Buddha wanted people from all social background to understand his teachings, to understand how to practice Dhamma. He chose to teach in common dialects and not in Sanskrit, a scholarly language at the time. When the Buddha passed away at the age of eighty, one monk, old in age but not wisdom, expressed his joy as ‘they were now freed of his clutches, free to do as they liked’. The Buddha’s own teaching after all was: Attāhi attano nāho — You are your own master.

Mahākassapa, an elderly monk, an arahant, fully liberated, and one of the chief disciples of the Buddha, heard this and decided to initiate preservation of the actual teachings against future distortion. He realized monks like the old one could easily misquote the teachings in the future, substituting their own words and removing essential disciplines — all of which did eventually happen.

Art work of the Buddha teaching Kisa Gautami, a young mother who lost her child. The Buddha told her to collect some mustard seeds from any family in which there had never been a death. The work of art is on display in the temple of the Vietnamese Monastry in Vaishali, one of the accommodations during the Along the Path pilgrimage.

In the forty-five years the Buddha taught Dhamma, he gave 82,000 discourses; his leading arahant disciples gave another 2,000 - 84,000 in all. Mahākassapa called a conference of 500 arahants who were eyewitnesses to the Buddha’s

teaching, to recite, compile and authenticate the actual words - the First Council. These 500 arahants committed the teachings of the Buddha to memory and — through a then oral tradition — passed them on through generations. Orally, the teachings of the Buddha spread through India to Sri Lanka during King Ashoka’s time (c. 3rd century BCE),

continually translated into the local dialects and languages. Because of the threat posed by famine and war, the teachings were written down (1st century BCE). At that time, several different carefully memorized versions existed; it was the Pāli version that was complete and was written down. Pāli eventually became a revered, standard, and international tongue. Just as Sanskrit is the canonical language of Hinduism and Latin the canonical language of Catholicism, Pāli is the classical language in which the teachings of the Buddha have been preserved.

Written down, the teachings of the Buddha are known as the Pāli Canon, or the Tipiṭaka. ‘Ti’- ‘piṭaka’ literally means three baskets:
(1) the basket of expected discipline from monks (Vinaya Piṭaka),
(2) basket of discourse (Sūtta Piṭaka, Nikayas), and
(3) basket of special doctrine (Abhidhamma Piṭaka).

Both the language Pāli and the Tipiṭaka were introduced to Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Pāli died out as a literary language in mainland India in the 14th century but survived elsewhere until the 18th.

Besides the Tipiṭaka the commentaries (the Aṭṭhakathā) and sub-commentaries (Tika) were also written down in Pāli. The commentaries were most likely written down around the same time as the Pāli Canon; the sub-commentaries date from the 12th century onwards.

In our Onalaska walk-in store we have several bookshelves dedicated to the Tipiṭaka. We have on display: the Tipiṭaka in Devanagari script (140 volumes) from Vipassana Research Institute (VRI), the Tipiṭaka in Romanised Pāli (56 volumes) and the associated English translations (33 volumes) from Pali Text Society.

Since the Vipassana tradition of U Ba Khin is a householder’s tradition, the VRI series starts from the Sutta’s (actual discourses) rather than the traditional order Vinaya (rules for monastics).

Pariyatti’s Pāli workshops are open for old students of S.N. Goenka, who practice Vipassana meditation regularly. Goenkaji emphasized that Pāli workshops are very beneficial as they help meditators develop inspiration and understanding of the theoretical aspect of Dhamma.

"[In the workshop I found] strengthening and encouragement of my practice. The teacher was able to answer so many of my questions regarding practice and attitude toward Buddha's teachings. While the study of the language Pali itself is important, in a classroom of students with different levels of Pali [I enjoyed] Klaus focused on the practical, rather than grammatical aspect of the reading materials. This ensured every student came away from the workshop with something intrinsically valuable."

Pariyatti Pāli workshops are set up similarly to a 10-day course: the recordings of Goenkaji’s chanting are played in the morning and there are three group sittings a day. However, there are lecture and study periods throughout the day as well.